Post Thoughts And Observations On The 2017 WISDEMS Convention

By Jeff Simpson

I attended my first Wisconsin Democratic Convention this weekend and wanted to share a few thoughts.

1.  The Voting has to get better!

People were lined up way early on Saturday morning to vote for chair.  Congrats to Martha Laning, David Bowen, Meg Andriesch, Mandela Barnes and Khary Penebaker, for being elected to leadership positions in the Wisconsin Democratic Party.  Now lets lead the party into the 21st Century and make sure in two years, party voting looks completely different.

First, let us look at the results.
Laning - 722
Kennedy - 569
Finch - 50
Donovan - 48
-----------------
Total -1839

Vote total needed to beat Scott Walker last election  - 1, 259, 163

Vote Total needed to win Assembly District 14,723

Ok you get the idea, we need more people involved.   The more people involved, the more people who feel they have a stake in the party and the more people who feel they have a stake in the party, the more people will participate.    The more people who participate, the more elections we win.... See what I did there

So how do we fix it.

1. We need a way for everyone to have a vote.   Designating certain people as delegates and others as not, to decide the future of the party, is not the way to do it,    If you are a member of the party, you should have a vote as to who is the head of the party.   Period.

2.  At the very least, everyone who attends the convention, pays their money to be a member and then pays even more for the convention should have a vote!  No excuses for this.   '

3.  There has to be an APP or a way to vote online, with a code or at your local county party if you can not make the convention etc... While you are at the convention, two boxes at a time for each CD is archaic.   Give people their one ballot as they walk in the room and then let them vote and have numerous boxes all around the room to put yours in.    We would raise bloody hell if this happened at regular elections and rightly so!

**  As a quick aside, to worry about Republicans joining and screwing with the vote, that is an impossibility.  The numbers do not add up!   Secondly, do not tell me its a priavte club and they do not have to follow those rules, and then be mad when so many people walk away and vote third party.  
4.  Another problem was the candidates WORKED THE LINES!  How is that even acceptable?  When we minimize the waiting times to vote, this will be somewhat fixed but it also needs to stop.

5. WISDEMS staffers.  This is a problem that numerous people who talked to me at the convention brought up.  There was a group of people, staffers, who showed great enthusiasm for Martha, during the speeches, and were strategically placed in front of the cameras, and brought a decent amount of votes.

 Now I am not blaming Martha's win on this, but it is something people noticed.  DO they truly think Martha was the best choice, or was Martha being re-elected their best chance to keep getting paychecks?    I would propose that anyone who gets paid by the WISDEMS can not vote in the election, with the one exception of the current chair(while they get paid they also are answerable to the voters, the staffers are not).   I would be more flexible on this if the voting was opened up, but when you limit delegates, then you give them an incredible amount of power.

6.  Please Martha, David, Meg and Mandela - Fix the voting system for next time.

Now the rest of the convention, thoughts and suggestions.

I understand that there has to be party business, I understand that the long time electeds need to have their ego stroked and have to speak, I understand that its cute to have cutesy slogans and themes,

* However, I would have one theme at every convention - Win the next election.     Anyone who plans to be in a race coming up, should have 3-5 minutes to speak.  They do not need to be introduced fancily, or any music played, just a quick introduction.   That allows Democrats from all over the state to meet the people who might/will be running for major offices.

Tammy should have spoken for sure, and anyone running/thinking of running for Governor, anyone running against an entrenched Republican, etc...  3-5 minutes max!  Then people can seek them out for more information as the convention goes on.

*  If we can eliminate the two hour wait to vote, that will open up more time for breakout sessions.   Maybe something like speed dating where you sit 8 people at a table and have different candidates, party members, etc...move around every few minutes to introduce yourself and answer questions.    Make everyone feel they have a voice and are being heard.

*  More interaction is what is needed to keep people involved, and interested.

*  Sorry, I have no suggestions on how to make resolutions and by-laws more exciting.

*  I heard Sachin Cheda and Nation Consulting was there working behind the scenes,...I don't think the people could be more clear that we need to rid ourselves of these toxic high paid consultants.    If they are involved the state loses.

*  There were some very good people running for these offices.  It is imperative that the people who did not win their races be an integral part of the WISDEMS going forward,   Eric Finch, Bryan Kennedy, Joe Donovan, Adam Brabender, Luke Fuszard and Peter Peckarsky all brought many strengths to the table and we need all of their skills going forward!

The best line of the whole convention was this one from Eric Finch:

Eric Finch, chair candidate at #DPW2017, tells crowd to take the anti-Scott Walker bumper stickers off and put on one for their candidate.

— Jason Stein (@jasonmdstein) June 3, 2017

I agree whole heartedly, dump the old recall signs and stickers and lets look forward not backwards!


* Finally, we found out something that anyone who read the Walkerdocs, already knew.   That the opposition, the WISGOP is run by a bunch of immature fools with the creativity and wit of a 12 year old math wiz.

The WISGOP put this billboard up (although not sure where because i never saw it):

But thats not all.  They vandalized cars all over the parking lot by putting this(which they did not have permission to use) on windshields:

But Wait there is more:

The WISGOP spent all hours of the night, stalking the WISDEM members and putting this under their door.  Kind of very creepy if you ask me! 

Whoever is running the WISGOP, seems to have a weird obsession with animal cruelty.  I hope that those close to him keep an eye on him before innocent others are endangered!
Seriously, please let us stop losing to these childish lunatics!

 

We Have It In Our Power To Begin Wisconsin Over Again

By Jeff Simpson

In every election as far back as I can remember, the party in power gets smoked in the mid-terms.  For Wisconsinites, the timing could not be better.   The 2018 election will be much more important than the beating the Democrats took last night.   The work for that needs to begin today,  but first we need some housekeeping and lessons from the election of 2016(from a Wisconsin point of view). 

1.  The old rules of how to campaign, win elections etc... all got thrown out the window this year.  While normal candidates, by the book, spent thousands on polling(more on this later), the Donald spent more on hats than he did polling.   The Donald had no real ground game, fought with everyone and spent most of his energy attacking anyone who criticized him, yet was the first Republican to win WI since Ronnie.

2.  There NEEDS to be accountability.   We have zero power now to make change, but we have all of the power to demand change.   There needs to be resignations and they need to come yesterday.   I would recommend we start with Martha Laning, Kory Kozlowski and whoever the head of research for the party is because he/she apparently had no idea that many people were running for office on the Dem Ticket.   We need to continue on and get new leadership in the State Senate and Assembly.   Jen Shilling and Peter Barca need to step down from their "lack of " leadership positions.

3. I recommend that David Bowen take over the party for the next year and he hire Mandela Barnes as Executive Director.   Then Mandela can decide after a year if he wants to run for office again or take over the WISDEMS.  One way or another, Mandela Barnes is part of the future of our party.    I also recommend that Kathleen Vinehout be Senate Minority leader and that Katrina Shankland be Assembly Democratic Leader with Jonathon Brostoff as her assistant.    Fresh leadership is desperatly needed!  

4.  Anyone who tells you that Bernie would not have done better against The Donald is just trying to cover up their own incompetence and lack of understanding of the election process and the Wisconsin electorates, so please take what they say with a huge grain of sand!  

5.  We need to have all of the super delegates, understand their role in the massive losses that we sustained in Wisconsin.   Bernie was a huge favorite, won Wisconsin primary handily, and yet all but David Bowen used their super delegate vote for HRC.  Wisconsinites who supported Bernie were contacting them to advocate for their candidate, some of the SD's were reprinting their letters and openly mocking them on social media.   

David Bowen, Mark Pocan, Gwen Moore, Ron Kind, Tammy Baldwin, Martha Laning, Jason Rae, Christine Bremer Muggli, Martha Love and Michael Childers.   

 6.  The old saying of "Don't mourn, Organize" is becoming passe' and needs to be edited to say "Don't mourn, talk".   I understand that everyone needs a little time to let the loss sink in but do not withdraw.   I see lots of my liberal/progressive friends on social media unfriending their Trump supporting friends and family members.  Stop it!

I have no problem criticizing our elected officials who are bigoted, anti education, racist and just plain dumb.  Keep that up, but their supporters are a different story.  We need to dialogue with them, try and understand them, see where they are coming from.  how they got there. and what you have in common.  Help them see the same things about you.   A big problem is we have put ourselves in a little bubble and only hear and see what we want too.   That happens on both sides (see News Fox) and we need to find ways to step outside our bubble and into theirs and vice versa.    

So Don't mourn, engage!    

7.  Find a spot for Mandy Wright.  Like Mandela Barnes, Mandy Wright also needs to be the future of the party!   

8.  Lets stop pretending that Charles Franklin and Nate Silver are heroes, guru's, experts or geniuses.  It is time to recognize that the anonymous opinion of a thousand people does not speak for 5 million others.   Polls are fine and they are good to know some information, but like a standardized test in public schools, tell us just a small frame of a feature film.   

9.  Who is the base of the Democratic Party?  As a former industrial, heavily unionized, blue state, the economy is not working for many many people.  With Gatt, NAFTA, WTO, And now the TPP, states like Wisconsin have been crushed economically.

Why have we allowed someone like Scott Walker to divide and conquer?  Because there is no champion to unite us.   No person to acknowledge the fact that we have lost jobs, that poverty is going up and so are incomes of the upper class.  No one to acknowledge that people are working two jobs and losing their homes.   No one to acknowledge that attacking public workers for having health insurance while we allow our politicians to give millions of our tax dollars to their friends no questions asked is hurting our state.  

That is what made Bernie so popular in WI(he won 71/72 counties) and elsewhere.   He spoke to the people that needed a champion.  He spoke directly to them and told them he gets it and understand their pain and the importance of fixing it.     

The people of Wisconsin, and elsewhere, are desperate not only for a populist message but a sincere populist message.    If you can filter out the racism, sexism, bigotry, etc... (and many people could) the message that Trump was saying was a populist message,   He told the people that he understood that they are losing their jobs to Mexico and China etc...  He let them know that he understood that we need jobs in America and that if you elect him the jobs will come back.    Ignoring the fact that the messenger was incredibly hypocritical, and the part of the problem, but the message resonated.   

10.   The Dem party, which includes the party apparatchik, made many mistakes throughout.   

         

          A. This is the first election in memory where the candidate did not make an appearance in the final days before the election.   Great idea.  

          B.  Hillary did send many surrogates here (Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren) and every time, they gave speeches to a solid crowd of Democrats and not once, did local/statewide candidates get a chance to share the stage and introduce themselves.   Now when we start looking at the next election, we get to hear how so many Democrats do not have "name recognition". 

          C.  Statewide Dems, who had a chance to get on a bigger stage, never once did they start naming names and talking about winning.   For instance, Mark Pocan was on Mike Gousha show and when asked about Paul Ryan working with The Donald, never once even mention the fact that Ryan Solen was running against him and he had to win his election first.   

11.  We need to identify who the base actually is.   It should be a big tent party where we bring in and appeal to everyone from the white working class to the minorities to the CEO's to the people in poverty.  If you follow politics, really follow politics, you know that many Trump/Walker supporters should be voting Democratic...so why aren't they? 

12.   There is a whole professional political class, that moves from one inside job to another and they are destroying our state.   The consultant class is consulting our state into a bright bright shade of red. For instance: 

  

 *  As Nation Consulting owns writes:  2. THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET. This is not the case of one thing going wrong. If you think nominating Bernie changes this 180 degrees, no. If you think more money changes this, no. If you think only racism or sexism or bigotry explains this, no. If you think only economics or culture explains this, no. If you think any one thing being different is the solution, no. A clusterfuck of this proportion only happens when many, many things go wrong. So take your simplistic answers and shove them.

It is not simple but if you think nominating Bernie would not have made a difference then you can take your simplistic understanding of the WI electorate and shove it! Of course a shill for Hillary would downplay the importance of the vast majority of Wisconsinites.

* Former Mary Burke team member, Joe Zepecki(who handled the press operations for Burke, on what might be the worse press operation campaign in history), who was given numerous chances on news talk shows to "speak for the Democrats", was also given the keys to a multi million dollar Super PAC (For Our Future Fund), which focused on community organizing, was based in Milwaukee. The lower turnout in Milwaukee was the difference in helping the Donald win WI and the Presidency.

Looking at some numbers (not sure what they mean, except turnout matters). (Assuming the results are all in) Clinton had similar margins of victory as Obama in Milwaukee County (66% to 29% vs 67% to 32%; 162,895 more votes in 2016 vs 169,660 in 2012). However, Obama collected 39,104 more total votes in Milwaukee County. Trump's statewide margin of victory was 26,788.

*  Many statewide candidates hired a company from Chicago called The Strategy Group.  Apparently this group of high priced political consultants from Chicago, most of whom were from the Coasts and Washington DC, were the perfect group to tell us how to win in Ladysmith, Winter and Oconto.    Of course right up until election day when they cash their checks, head home and their candidates get their hats handed to them.  

13.   The party insiders need to get over themselves and take a long hard look in the mirror.  Wisconsin was a blue state until Mike Tate and his crew took over and now we are a bright red state.   Members of his team turned that kind of success into other jobs, like Jake Hadju, who ran Hillary's operations in WI( the first time since 1984 that a Republican won our state).  

Many of the team are outright hostile to people who are not members of the party or have criticisms.  Which leads to divisions in the party and Republican landslides.   If they want to continue in their old habits, then they need to find a new career.  If they are willing to acknowledge that their way has not worked in years then lets all work together and change this state back to blue! 

14. Do not be a party of the Republicans suck, be a party of telling stories and holding Republicans accountable.   For example, in the last week before the election, Paul Ryan had someone yell at his GOTV rally "Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when you need him?" and Paul Ryan completely ignored it.  So did the media and the Democratic party.   What would have happened if someone yelled that about Scott Walker at a Democratic GOTV rally? 

15.   Finally, we need some people to start running for Governor now.   Lets get name recognition and message fine tuned soon.  We need to let the Republicans attack them now, and make the hard core criticisms old news by election season!  

Extra Credit:   Make Alan Grayson head of the Democratic National Committee! 

We can do this.  2018 can bring a new day but we need to work together and we need to start now! 

Laning - Bowen For DPW

I'll admit that I was loathe to give any endorsement regarding the election for the new chair and first vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Even though I support the DPW platform and find the values therein closely aligned to my own values, I am not a member of the party. I just cannot bring myself to join a party that not only tolerates but gives accolades to people like Boss Abele, who has done more to weaken and undermine the party than all of WISGOP.  And since I'm not a card-carrying Dem, I obviously won't be going to the convention.  (Besides, I'm not keen of giving the establishment Dems a chance to put a real knife in my back.)

I also cannot say that I was overly enthused with any of the candidates for the chair.  While each candidate has their own strengths, they also each have areas that give me pause if not ruling themselves out completely.

That said, I have had several people ask for my input, so here it is.

I looked at each of the candidates on where they stood on the issues that are important to not only me but for the state as a whole.  I looked at their positions on education, women's rights and, of course, workers' rights.  I also looked at what they had to say about the direction the party has been going and what they would do about it.

Not only did I look at what they had to say but what they had already done about these things.  More importantly, I looked at whether their actions jived with their stated positions.  I didn't want to see another Mike Tate who said one thing but did another.

I also looked at who would be best able to - and willing to - break the stranglehold that corporate Dems like Boss Abele had on the party. I wanted to know which candidate or candidates were going to put the platform before Abele's pocketbook.

Finally, I considered each candidates overall approach.  Were they asking for support or were the offering it?  Were they worried about reaching out to people or just reaching into their wallets?  

I then looked at the second candidite on each ticket (whare there was one), using the same guidelines.

The slate that I found that best matched these standards was the team of Martha Laning and David Bowen.  Laning, like many of us, had felt disenfranchised from the party.  However, instead of idly grousing, Laning took direct action and to be the change she wanted to be see.  Laning also has the fundraising skills needed to take the party back from Abele and put it - and Wisconsin - back on a winning track.

Bowen, with whom I was familiar from his days as a Milwaukee County Supervisor, is a proven defender of our schools and a champion of workers' rights and a living wage.

So, after careful consideration, I am endorsing the Laning - Bowen ticket to be the DPW chair and first vice-chair. 

After all, if there is to be a real change from the status quo, there needs to be real agents of change.  Martha Laning and David Bowen are those agents.

If my opinion alone is not enough for the gentle reader to make their decision - and really, it shouldn't be enough - I would suggest checking out the endorsement by Zach Wisniewski at Blogging Blue.

Joe Wineke For Chair

By Jeff Simpson

The Wisconsin State Democratic Convention is coming up and while I will not be there, there is an incredibly important vote going on.  The vote for who will be the next head of the State of Wisconsin Democratic Party(and first vice chair).

In the running are:

Martha Laning/David Bowen -  Martha Laning ran for WI Senate in the 9th district and while running gave basically the same answer as Mary Burke was giving regarding ACT 10.  Some gobbeldygook about it helping balance the massive budget deficit which showed she didn't understand the deficit, or ACT 10 and is more than willing to throw public workers under the bus.   Laning also does not support a raise in the minimum wage. No thanks!

Also, running on her ticket for first vice chair, is Representative David Bowen.   I really like and respect Mr. Bowen and see a strong future for him in the Democratic party and the state of Wisconsin.   However he needs to get his own house in order before worrying about the party.   The Assembly, under Peter Barca's "leadership" has lost seats every year, and last year let 26 of the 99 seats go unchallenged.   When Bowen challenges Barca, I am on board 100%, now I am not on board at all.

Jeff Smith/ Stephanie Findley:   I also like and respect Jeff Smith,   I hope he stays involved and active in the Democratic party for many years to come.   However I can not support his candidacy at this time.  I personally think, that the number one issue that Democrats can get behind and win on is public education.  We see it every election cycle with referendum after referendum passing.

People want what is best for their kids, and what is best for their kids is a strong public education.  

Unfortunately, Ms. Findley is very much on the wrong end of this argument.   The alternative to public education, is a public education that has the resources needed to succeed,  When you want to give even a penny of our public education dollars to snake oil salesmen like Zeus Rodriguez or formerly convicted felons like Scott Jensen, then you are running for leadership of the wrong party.    
Jason Rae//Penny Bernard Schaber:  This is the biggest head scratcher of them all.   It amazes me that someone from the lobbying/consulting firm - Nation Consulting, would be bold enough to try and run the Democratic Party.   One of the important issues that Democrats stand for is getting money out of politics.  To elect a lobbyist to run the party would be like hiring a someone who was knee deep in the caucus scandal to run the gubernatorial campaign against Scott Walker.   Ok, we tried that and it did not work out very well.

All we need to do is allow Thad Nation, to have access to the full party and who knows how many pipelines we can get flowing through Wisconsin.

It is unfortunate that Ms. Schaber has hitched her wagons to a lobbyist because she has served our state well.

Please, whatever happens, putting Nation Consulting in charge of the Democratic Party would be a death knell to the party.

All of the people running, I appreciate that they are.  I also believe that the Democratic party has to be a big tent party.  I also understand that party purity is hard to find in terms of candidates and members, however we need it in our chair.  

Finally the team that I support and fully endorse:

Joe Wineke/Dottie LeClair:

Joe Wineke used to be party chair and last time he was in control, the Democrats had both houses and the Governor.   My how things have fallen.

I know one of the biggest complaints is that Mr. Wineke brought Nation into the Democratic party and was a lobbyist for AT&T.   While everyone makes mistakes, hopefully we know enough now about Nation Consulting that they will be blackballed from the Democratic party and all Democratic candidates.   I know I personally will not send a nickel to any candidate that hires them.

As for the lobbyist gig, let me address that.   I have always, and still do, hold the profession of lobbying, slightly below ambulance chasers and snake handlers.  That being said, Mr. Wineke was taking no salary at the time as head of the party(people need to make money, so the chair should take a salary) and everyone needs to make money.  Secondly, while it was not the best move in the world, after getting some pressure, he resigned his position.

Let me say that again.  After getting pressure from the people in the party, he actually listened and resigned his position.

Had our last "leader" actually listened to the people in the party we might be in a different position right now.

In the end, it is results that speak to me and it is undeniable(while I understand Wineke does not get full credit) that when he was in charge of the party, Democrats won elections.  

That is enough for me and I urge the people who signed up to be delegates(and who actually get to vote) to vote for Joe Wineke/Dottie LeClair ticket!

Some more on Joe Wineke:

Here he is on Sly

Here he is again on Sly discussing the party chair position

A Q & A session with his local paper

A Blogging Blue interview

Dave Zweifel of the Capital Times, take on Joe

One last thing, the last time I joined the Democratic Party was the day the Senators left Wisconsin to slow down the fast tracked Walker anti-worker agenda.   After that year, I let me party membership lapse because it seemed like once they came back to WI, they stopped representing us.  If Joe Wineke wins the party chair election, I will join the party the following Monday.

Boss Abele Pulls Some (Purse)Strings For Torhorst

Apparently realizing that Dan Abele Adams is a lost cause, Boss Abele has decided to focus on trying to salvage the race for his other hand-picked candidate, Tia Torhorst.

Like Adams, Torhorst has been caught repeatedly misrepresenting herself to the voters and needed a boost.
So Boss Abele pulled some purse strings for his aide and got former US Senator Herb Kohl to give a generic endorsement for Torhorst.

At first, I was surprised at the endorsement.  Kohl is not one to often give endorsements and when he does, it's usually just for a big race, such as a statewide race or a federal race.

But it started to make sense when I realized that Abele and Kohl have a tight relationship because of the Milwaukee Bucks and the plutocratic dream of a new arena for the lackluster team.  Cementing the relationship even further is the fact that John Zapfel, who currently Abele's Deputy Chief of Staff, was a former legislative aide to Kohl.

There's a few strings for Abele to pull to get Kohl to say something nice about Torhorst.

The laugh line about this though is the reaction that Abele got when he gushed over the news on Facebook:

Notice the box with the names of the people that liked it.  Those are all either Abele's people, most of them his employees.  It's like Boss Abele is demanding the same kind of loyalty that Scott Walker requires from his people.

Fortunately, the good people of Assembly District 10 have a candidate that will represent them and not Abele.  Please make sure to get out the vote on Tuesday in support of David Bowen.

Endorsement: David Bowen For Assembly District 10!

Award winning reporter Dominiqe Paul Noth has done a fairly comprehensive analysis of the Democratic primary for Assembly District 10.  While the gentle reader really should read Noth's column, I would offer my take on this race, which, for all practical purposes, is going to determent the next state representative for this district.

This race is unique due to the fact that while it is a Democratic primary, it shows three factions that exist in the party and opens the debate to which would best serve the constituents.  This race also has some serious dynamics that will surely come into play in these final four weeks before the primary.

David Bowen

The first candidate, and the one that I am supporting, is Milwaukee County Supervisor David Bowen.  Bowen's supervisor district overlaps part of AD 10, so Bowen has already a good understanding of some of the issues that are important to the people living in the district.  Furthermore, Bowen has already been acting in the best interest of the people in the district.

Bowen has picked up where his predecessor, Eyon Biddle, left off and has been an active supporter of the Ready to Work Program, which has already helped many unemployed people gain the skills they needed and have landed jobs that average a family supporting wage of $15 per hour. Likewise, Bowen has been the leader on the passage of the living wage ordinance in Milwaukee County.

Bowen has been spoken highly and supported by US. Representative Gwen Moore and State Representative Evan Goyke.  Most significantly, he has been endorsed by Representative Sandy Pasch, who is the current representative of that district.

The next candidate is Bria Grant.  Grant is the education privatization candidate and is being propped up by sell out Senator Lena Taylor, who's probably looking for one more payout from the education profiteers before she is bounced out of office herself.

The third candidate in this primary is Tia Torhorst, a member of the Abele Party.  Abele is having her run because he wants to increase his "sphere of influence" in Madison, meaning he wants people that will introduce and pass things he wants when he can't get his way in Milwaukee County.

Even though she claims to be "progressive," in reality, she is about as progressive as her boss.  She had fought hard against the Ready to Work program, trying to kill it all along the way.  As Noth notes in his column, this isn't the only thing she is trying to mislead people on:

Her literature points out that she is the only candidate living in the district and is the best spokesperson for public education, knowing how highly regarded public schools are in Shorewood and that MPS’ Rufus King is one of the nation’s highest rated high schools.

Such campaign statements  raise eyebrows, particularly “the only candidate with a child in a public school in the district.”  That has to be parsed carefully.  By “district” she means Shorewood, which doesn’t yet have the voucher schools and diverse options and confusions the city part of the district contends with. And the hint that the other candidates are “carpetbagging”?  Bowen represented part of the district on the Milwaukee board and is moving into a house in the community.  Grant says she does her main work in the district. Since Bowen is a bachelor he doesn’t have a child in any school. Grant has a child entering an MPS school in the fall.

Noth also accurately points out that she was more than willing to testify in Madison in favor of limiting representative government in Milwaukee County.  How is that progressive by any stretch of the imagination?

Even though Bowen is obviously the only worthy candidate, this race will be anything but a cakewalk for him.

Even though his supervisory district does overlap with part of AD 10, there is a lot of people who are unfamiliar with him, especially in the Shorewood area. Besides the challenge of just getting his name and his positions out there, he is also facing an uphill battle in regards to money. Grant will have the financial backing of the education profiteering special interests. Torhorst, who already boasts of her fundraising skills, is getting a lot of direct and indirect support from her boss, Chris Abele.

To learn more about Bowen, check out his website and his Facebook page.  To help Bowen overcome the big money of the school profiteers and the plutocrats, please give what you can to his campaign.

Tia Torhorst - The Abele Party Candidate for AD 10

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has been heard to say that he is seeking to increase his "sphere of influence."  By increasing his "sphere of influence," he, of course, means buying off politicians.  And his if off to a good start in that area.

He has already given money to rabid Teapublican state legislators Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooyenga.  He has also given money and held a fundraiser for the Teapublican county supervisor Deanna Alexander, who has been such a useful tool for him.

Wishing to buy even more politicians increase his influence further, he had convinced Dan Adams to run against his nemesis, Marina Dimitrijevic, in the AD 19 race.  At last count, Abele has held four fundraisers for Adams and lent him some of his campaign staff to help run his feeble campaign.

Now he has a hand-picked candidate for the AD 10 race to replace the retiring Sandy Pasch.  The candidate from the Abele Party (Motto: Bribing towards a more perfect plutocracy) is Tia Torhorst.  Torhorst was one of Abele's legislative aides at the county before becoming the political director for Abele's campaign - a job she lists as still holding even as she is running her own campaign.

Indeed, Abele just had lent his campaign a third of a million dollars, of which, $14,000 went to Torhorst at the end of 2013.  That would make a nice beginning war chest for someone looking to run for office.

Another sure sign that Torhorst is part of the Abele Party is her misleading campaign literature and website.  Torhorst labels herself as a "Proven Progressive" and a "Progressive for Responsible Leadership," but a minimal look at her claims versus her record shows her to be anything but progressive or responsible.

Her campaign website's "Issues" page has only two issues, which not only shows just how out of touch she is with the community Abele wants her to represent, but is also, shall we say nicely, very misleading.

The first issue she has listed is education. This blurb sure makes it look like she is progressive:

As the only candidate who lives in the district and the only candidate with a child in a public school in the district, I fully understand the concern about our schools. Scott Walker has spent four years cutting funding for public education while at the same time he’s decimated the morale of teachers with Act 10. As a result, we face a serious problem with maintaining the most important economic tool in our state’s toolbox – a high quality education system. I will work to restore collective bargaining rights for teachers and increase funding for our public education system.

Boy, there's more than a few issues in just that one paragraph.

As far as living in the district, I do know that David Bowen has bought a house in the district and is having it renovated, showing that he is committed to the entire district.  She is also giving a backhanded slap at the retiring Sandy Pasch who did not live in the district when she was running for the seat two years ago.

It should also be noted that how Torhorst is targeting teachers with her comments about Act 10 and restoring collective bargaining, even though that maleficent law affects all public sector workers.  This is a classic example of divide and conquer, like Scott Walker did with the police and public safety versus the rest of the public sector workers.

Torhorst isn't really all that pro-union.  She refused to even acknowledge the invitation to interview with PEOPLE, the political arm of AFSCME much less try for an endorsement. Then again, given Abele's vehemence and loathing against AFSCME, Torhorst probably isn't allowed to go near them.

As troubling as this first blurb is, the one in the section regarding job training is quite egregious.  Talking about "Economic Health," Torhorst makes this claim:

I’m proud that when I was Legislative Director for Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele we funded a job-training program that took 500 people who were making $8/hour and taught them new skills for jobs that pay more than $15/hour. This is a model we should expand across the 10th District and all of Wisconsin.

She couldn't even get the facts straight.  The program, which was developed by Supervisors Eyon Biddle and Theodore Lipscomb, actually worked with unemployed people, not making any money, and gave them the skills to work in jobs that averaged $15 per hour.

It is understandable that Torhorst would get these facts wrong, considering that she actually worked to try to get the program killed before it was approved and then worked feverishly to get supervisors to support Abele's veto of the program.  Like he does now, Abele felt that was a waste of money to help workers get living wage jobs. It should be noted that once Abele's veto was overridden, it took another ten months and action by Supervisor Lipscomb and the county board to get Abele to actually implement the program.

Understandably, these false claims of credit for a program that Torhorst actually fought against has really angered the actual authors of the resolution.

On his Facebook page, which I reproduce here with his permission, Eyon Biddle tore into Torhorst for her false representation:

Normally, I would let this go. Tia is running for Assembly in the 10th District. She used to work for Chris Abele, the so called progressive wolf in sheep's clothing. He's only progressive on LGBTQ issues and because he throws generous checks at organizations. Don't be fooled here. But what pissed me off is her trying to take credit for the Biddle-Lipscomb Ready To Work Plan. Not only has this job plan been widely successful but it has taken shots from the Chris Abele and Tia who tried to sabotage it. They vetoed it, tried to ruin my credibility on the County Board and undermine the success of the program.

This piece is dishonest. This is the type of leadership that we don't need at the State Assembly.

I reached out to Lipscomb as well, who told me:

"She is knowingly revising history and it bears no resemblance to the truth. The very thing she says that she supports and that we should replicate is what she worked hard against and what her boss energetically vetoed."

Apparently, one thing that Torhorst shares with her boss is the disturbingly ease with which they can tell barefaced lies.

As Biddle also stated in his post, a vote for Torhorst is a vote for Abele.

If the good voters of AD 10 wish to support and vote for a true, undeniable progressive, that person is David Bowen, who championed the living wage ordinance and who has been an actual supporter of the Ready to Work program.

I hope to have the chance to interview Bowen before the primary, but in the meantime the gentle reader can learn about Bowen at his website and his Facebook page.  And if you can donate to help him and keep a real progressive in the seat, please help support him.  He'll need as much help as he can going up against Abele's dark money support of Torhorst.

Referendum Watch: Abele Channels His Inner Walker And Gets Called Out

I know that if the gentle reader is like myself, they can't wait for Tuesday's elections to be over, because as tired as you might be reading about the austerity referendum, I'm getting tired of writing about it.

But there were a few things that happened today which were too good to pass up.

One was that Abele's front group, Forward Milwaukee County, sent out yet another email blast which sounds like it was written by Scott Walker's campaign/government staff:

Dear Milwaukee County Voter,

Those desperate to maintain full-time pay for the part-time Milwaukee County Board are pulling out all the stops to prevent approval of tomorrow's referendum.

Big labor has begun an orchestrated effort to mobilize their members through a mailing to thousands of county residents.

One current supervisor is even taking out paid advertising to retain the lucrative salary and benefits they currently receive for part-time work.

It's clear that those with a vested interest in maintaining the taxpayer-funded gravy train will be very active in these last two days – that’s why your attention and action is so very important.

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT REFORM OF MILWAUKEE COUNTY VOTE YES TOMORROW AND ENCOURAGE FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS AND CO-WORKERS TO DO THE SAME.

Thanks,
Forward Milwaukee County
For more information, see www.ForwardMilwaukeeCounty.com

I'm still laughing at the line about "Big Labor." Not only is it something straight from a Scott Walker email and shows that Abele is anything but a progressive. It's even funnier when it's just one mailer that was sent out. They're either very scared or are so full of bullshit that they are an ecological hazard.

In contrast to this conflated, hyperbolic and empty rhetoric, Jonathan Brostoff, a former county board aide and candidate for Assembly District 19, as reported by Ed Heinzelman at Blogging Blue, presents a reasoned, rational explanation why the proper vote on the power grab referendum would be no.

But the most powerful counter to Abele's flat out lies comes from Supervisor David Bowen, who issued this statement today:

“As Election Day draws near it is important to think critically about the referendum on the ballot in Milwaukee County. It is important you understand the hypocrisy of those wealthy special interests supporting it. They do not and should not speak for the people of Milwaukee County.

“It should come as no surprise to you that wealthy special interests are pushing you to vote for a referendum to reduce the pay of your elected representatives on the County Board. Individuals who make astronomically more than we do want you to believe you would be better off with a legislative body with little oversight and few resources to monitor questionable uses of your tax dollars.

“Those who have crafted and influenced the language of the referendum all fall into the category of ‘wealthy special interests.’

“Those in the Greater Milwaukee Committee pushing this referendum do not understand how hard it is for you to pay for your bus ticket. The County Executive—whose wealth is evident—takes his six-figure salary and benefits from the County tax levy every year and doesn’t understand how expensive your childcare is every month. And the primary author of the referendum, who runs a million dollar taxicab monopoly, also admitted he only worked part-time as a supervisor but still took his full-time salary and benefits from your county tax dollars. He doesn’t understand how hard it was to pay for your heat this exceptionally cold winter.

“Maybe it’s time for the authors of this referendum to give back their taxpayer funded salaries, health care and pensions since they believe public service is not about the money.”

To sum it up, the decision isn't about whether the supervisors' pay should be cut. It's about whether we want hard working people like us representing us or do we want the elitist 1% ruling over us.

The Message Behind Chris Abele's Veto Of The Living Wage Ordinance

On Wednesday, Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele happened to find time to make a rare appearance at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to veto the living wage ordinance.  This comes as no surprise since he was actively lobbying the Teapublican state legislators to pass a law banning not only Milwaukee County's living wage ordinance, but all local living wage laws in the state.

As an excuse for his veto, Abele trotted out the old, tired line that it would cost too much, endanger services and harm the people that it was meant to help.  This is the same claptrap that Big Money has always used whenever the subject of raising the minimum wage is brought up, even though it has been repeatedly been proven to be a false claim.

Ironically, Abele says he would prefer the federal government or the state government to raise the minimum wage, but then vetoed another resolution from the Board which would show support for that very thing.

Supervisor David Bowen, who has been leading the move for a living wage in Milwaukee County, responded to Abele's veto with this tweet:

Looking fwd to veto override vote tomorrow that will turn 1000's of poverty jobs to good jobs w/Living Wage! Action not lip service!

Indeed, the Board should override this veto.

When one looks past Abele's inanity, his message becomes painfully clear.

He is saying that the person taking care of your grandmother isn't worth $11.32 an hour, although he is willing to pay his personal friend and crony, Amber Moreen, $81.73 per hour to translate his drunken emails.

He is saying that the people who will care for the people he is kicking out of the mental health complex aren't worth $11.32 per hour, but that Don Tyler, his administrative director, should get $81.73 an hour to flat out lie to the county board to cover up the cause and cost of Abele's courthouse fire.

I spoke to Boyd McCamish, Executive Director of AFSCME District Council 48, regarding this. AFSCME, along with other unions and grassroots groups, has been a strong proponent of the living wage.  McCamish put it in clear terms what Abele's veto was saying.

McCamish said that this was a chance for Abele to do good.  He pointed out that the number of people in Milwaukee County who are living under the poverty line has only grown under Abele's administration.  McCamish said that with his veto, Abele was making the conscious decision to keep thousands of people in poverty.  McCamish added that this was not an economic question, but a moral one.

In summary, the message the Abele is sending to the people is the same one that the aloof and the elitists have been saying for centuries: "Let them eat cake!"

As I said above, the Milwaukee County Board should override his veto.  Not only is economically responsible, but it is morally imperative.

It is sad that Abele is either unable to understand this or he just doesn't care.

Milwaukee County Supervisors Criticize Abele's Veto Of Living Wage

From the inbox:

MILWAUKEE COUNTY SUPERVISORS DAVID F. BOWEN AND KHALIF RAINEY CRITICIZE

COUNTY EXECUTIVE ON VETO OF LIVING WAGE ORDINANCE

Milwaukee County Supervisors David F. Bowen and Khalif Rainey said today that the County Executive's veto of a living wage ordinance is "a slap in the face of the working poor in Milwaukee County."

The Milwaukee County Board passed a living wage ordinance that sets a wage of $11.32 an hour by a veto-proof majority of 12-6 on February 6. The County living wage measure affects employees of companies which have contracts with the County. The current minimum wage is $7.50.

Bowen said the County Executive was, according to the Government Accountability Board, "busy lobbying the Legislature for an Assembly bill to kill living wage ordinances across the State because he does not have the courage to sign the Milwaukee County living wage ordinance.

"The County Executive has not been listening to the people," Bowen said. "By vetoing this ordinance he is doing everything possible to prevent the working poor from getting a living wage, and not only has he vetoed the ordinance, he is lobbying for a state law prohibiting municipalities from establishing living wages."

Rainey said that any delay in establishing a living wage in Milwaukee County hurts the working poor.

"The time for a living wage is now," Rainey said. "Too many people in Milwaukee County are working full-time and still living in poverty. This becomes a drag on the economy as these people come to rely on County social services. What we need is a living wage to put money in the pockets of the working poor so they can lift themselves out of poverty and help the local economy."

Bowen, who authored the living wage ordinance with Rainey as lead co-sponsor, said the County Executive should lobby for policies that create good family-supporting job, not on taking money out of working people's pockets.

"Many of those who testified before the Board's Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee spoke in favor of the living wage because they know how important it is to workers, their families and our local economy," Bowen said. "But the County Executive has chosen to ignore them.

"I urge my colleagues on the County Board to override this veto. The working poor are depending on people of conscience to help lift them out of poverty."

Couldn't say it better myself.

Abele's War On Workers Runs Amok

This past Tuesday, State Representative Chris Kapenga (R-Marie) and State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-Antoinette) announced that they were introducing a bill that would prohibit local governments from having any sort of living wage laws. To make matters worse, they announced that the public hearing was going to be the very next morning.

Obviously, they were hoping that the people weren't going to be able to rally fast enough and only the entities
openly in favor of the bill would be able to testify.  They obviously underestimated the people.

The hearing was well attended by Milwaukee County Supervisor David Bowen, Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, and activists Mike Wilder and Nicole Collazo Santiago, to name just a few.

Given that the Milwaukee County Board had just passed a living wage ordinance last week and the fact that Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has been an outspoken opponent to such a law, many - including myself - naturally presumed that Abele had done one of his usual temper tantrums and ran to the Teapublicans in the state legislature to get them to pass a bill to allow him to get his way.

After all, he's done just that several times before.  When the County Board prevented Abele from sticking it to the county employees to the extent he wanted to, he bought off State Representatives Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooyenga to pass Act 14, which usurped power from the Board and concentrated it in his hands.  He's also done that more recently to get Lake Michigan redefined so he can build a skyscraper on the lakefront.  He also did this to remove any and all oversight of the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division from the County Board because they wanted to put safety measures in place.

Abele's involvement was further implied when people started to report that Abele had spent time lobbying for this bill to be written and passed.

But Abele denied any involvement. Per a post that he or one of his aides put up on Facebook (using both his official and his campaign pages):

Despite some of the things you might have seen posted by certain groups, I did not lobby for the state bill limiting living wage laws.

In fact, the hours listed on the GAB website are for hours we spent lobbying trying to RAISE the state minimum wage to $10.10 for all workers.

An effort I will continue to fight for.

Per an article by Sean Ryan of the Milwaukee Business Journal, Abele was surprised by this bill and "had concerns":

Abele became aware of Kapenga’s bill on Tuesday, but was not involved in its drafting, said Brendan Conway, Abele’s communications director. Abele but shares Barrett’s concerns regarding how it may affect local worker hiring requirements, Conway said.

And per Steve Schultz of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kapenga also came to Abele's defense:

Kapenga said he drafted his bill after hearing the Milwaukee County Board approved a living wage ordinance last week. Kapenga said he wasn't acting at the behest of County Executive Chris Abele, as some opponents of the measure had alleged.

"I wrote this," Kapenga said, during a hearing of the Assembly Labor Committee. He said living wage ordinances would harm the local economy by scaring away employers.

The problem with Kapenga's statement is that it is utterly false. The Cities of Milwaukee has had a higher minimum wage for almost two decades without bad effect. Likewise, the City of Madison and Dane County each have had higher wages and they are by far the most successful part of the state.

Obviously, Kapenga is not a reliable or credible person.

As for Abele's claim, one would first have to overlook his past behaviors of running to the state legislature every time he gets told no, as I cited above.

One would also have to ignore Abele's lengthy history of being an active opponent to any kind of living wage requirement.  When Supervisor Bowen first announced this resolution, Abele immediately came out against it.  Before that, when the board tried to pass a similar requirement on a hotel being built on the former county grounds, Abele was quick to veto it that and lobbied hard in order to get his veto sustained.

The biggest item one would have to overlook in order to believe Abele is this:

It clearly shows that, as Abele claims, he was lobbying in regards to increasing the minimum wage.  But it also shows that he was lobbying against the living wage as well, which is a direct contradiction to his claim that he wasn't lobbying on it at all.

Now, it's entirely possible that Abele wasn't lobbying against the living wage, but to accept that would require a person to ignore a lot of past patterns and solid proof.

My personal take is that Abele did push for this bill, but had gone back to the well once too often.

Not getting his way about the living wage, Abele did what has become habit for him, and ran to the state legislature to get them to pass a law allowing him to again thwart the will of the people.  But this time, the player got played and the Teapublicans went much farther than he had wanted.

Instead of just stopping the Milwaukee County resolution, the wages of people who work for companies contracted to the City of Milwaukee, the City of Madison and Dane County are being threatened.  If they take a large pay cut, they could lose their homes.  Not only that, but money that would have been spent regionally might start going elsewhere, even out of state.

Because of the fierce backlash to this bill, Abele is now desperately trying to to distance himself from it, even though he wanted it in the first place.

It is infuriating to think that all of these people could be needlessly harmed because Abele had another temper tantrum.

But it does show that we need to get rid of Abele as much as we need to get rid of his mentor, Scott Walker.

To Err Is Human, But To Really Screw Up, You Need The Corporate Media

It is well known in Fitzwalkerstan that the Teapublicans that are in charge of the state legislature don't write their own laws.  Instead, they rely on their wealthy campaign donors to write the bills for them.

This has been shown to be the sad state of affairs many times.  G-Tac wrote the mining bill.  Chris Abele and his fellow plutocrats at the Greater Milwaukee Committee hired a silk stocking law firm to write the bill consolidating power in Milwaukee County into Abele's particularly inept hands.

Most recently, it was reported that the sleazy Rep. Joel Kleefisch is pushing a bill written by the even sleazier Michael Eisenga to help Eisenga get out of paying a decent amount of child support.

In order to take the heat of their bought and paid for legislators, the corporate media did what it always does in these situations - they tried to distract the people by yelling "Squirrel!"

To be more specific, Adam Tobias of Wisconsin Reporter, a Koch Industry subsidiary, wrote a piece of propaganda claiming that Big Labor wrote the living wage resolution for Milwaukee County Supervisor David Bowen.

Tobias' proof is that SEIU had supported Bowen in his last election and some hearsay:

County Supervisor David Bowen wrote the legislation in collaboration with the Service Employees International Union.

Bowen, endorsed by the SEIU Wisconsin State Council in his 2012 election, worked with labor union representatives on about 15 drafts and met with them several times in his office at the county courthouse, County Supervisor James “Luigi” Schmitt confirmed.

“SEIU, they’ve been lockstep with it,” Schmitt told Wisconsin Reporter.

As one might expect, Tobias' reporting leaves a lot to be desired. And the greatest things desired would be accuracy and honesty.

I contacted Supervisor Bowen after seeing this and asked him if the SEIU had written the resolution. He was quite clear in saying they did not. He said that they did ask to have some input on it, as did about fifteen other groups, including other unions.

He also told me that the person Tobias had specifically referred to wasn't even part of SEIU.  Obviously, Tobias was just making things up by the time he wrote the article.

So why didn't Tobias include some information and then made up other things?

He wasn't completely honest because that would not fit into the corporate agenda of smearing the unions and keeping workers from making a living wage.  Why, if people were allowed to make a living wage, they just might be able to make enough money that they didn't need to work two or three jobs and would be able to see just how much the corporate special interests have been ripping them off.

And who knows where it would go from there! People might be able to make educated choices at the election booth and vote the corporate sponsored Teapublicans out.  They might unionize at the job site and start demanding things like respect and safety.  Then there might be a push for women's rights, voters' rights and who knows what!

Anyway, I digress.

The point is that the corporate shills being funded by the corporate special interests are trying to detract from how badly their puppets like Joel Kleefisch are failing in the public relations department.  And since there is no way to justify this level of greed and corruption, they try to conflate a situation to distract people from what is really going on.

But then there is more.  There is always more.

The granddaddy of all corporate media, Faux News, picked up the propaganda piece.  Unsurprisingly, they did a copy and paste job without a trace of fact checking...not that they would have reported the truth even if they had been aware of it.  But then, for some bizarre reason, they decided to go with this picture and even odder yet, this caption:

Click on image to embiggen

Well, they are still failing geography, but at least they dropped the palm trees.  Or do you suppose they all just died from being uprooted and transplanted 70 miles to the east?

And wait, I thought the capitol of Fitzwalkerstan was in Walkersha...

Really, it is beyond me how anyone can believe these corporate puppets, much less cite them as credible sources.

A tip of the crown to blue cheddar for pointing it out to me.

David Clarke's Misplaced Priorities Exposed. Again.

It is no deep, dark secret that Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is an incompetent twit whose poor leadership skills are only surpassed by his poor interpersonal skills.

It is also commonly known that Clarke's effectiveness as a law enforcement officer leaves a lot to be desired, as noted by the fact that he helps drunk drivers out of snow banks without even knowing they're drunk.

To help cover up his incompetence, Clarke likes to do a lot of blustery bravado and to raise false alarms about other things to distract the people's from the real problems.  The most recent example is Clarke raising the boogeyman of the "Knockout Game," something that has been around since I was a kid.  Not only is Clarke trying to conflate people's fear, he is also furthering the racism that is all too prevalent in Milwaukee.

Fortunately, we have people like Milwaukee County Supervisor David Bowen who can see through Clarke's nonsense and have the fortitude to target="_blank">call him out on it:

David Bowen

Supervisor David Bowen is speaking out on a recent warning about the "Knockout Game". This "game" consists of someone, or a group of people, punching an innocent victim while someone else records the act of senseless violence. Sheriff David Clarke issued a warning recently about what he claimed is a growing trend.

"While some like Sheriff Clarke have bought into myths that violent mobs of young people are roaming the streets to ‘knock out’ harmless bystanders,” Supervisor Bowen said, “I am here to remind the public that we have many respectful and law abiding young people who are not on a mission of destruction.

"There have been incidents where older people, not just youth, are resorting to this type of violence, but it is not an increasing trend in our community. Let's not be delusional and push our residents to live in fear. We should be doing the opposite by finding ways to mentor and support young people and organizations that work to develop them.”

Supervisor Bowen says there should be more concern about the increase in gun violence and guns ending up in the hands of people who shouldn't have them. This week Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn showed the media where MPD holds guns seized in crimes. There were 11,000 guns in that room. Chief Flynn called for tighter restrictions in the state's Concealed Carry laws.

"We should be far more worried about the growing culture of gun violence than a 'growing trend' of random attacks. Unfortunately this also applies to situations when young people haven't done anything but live in their own community like Treyvon Martin or Milwaukee's own Darius Simmons. They were killed by guns, not fists.

To that end I encourage our community to use this holiday season to be thankful for our many great young people. We should not treat them as a problem but instead help find solutions; by doing that we can work towards improving the quality of life for our entire community."

Anf for those that might have missed it, Clarke has been using taxpayer money to promote the values of the NRA, one of his greatest benefactors. In other words, Clarke is not part of the solutions to our societal problems, but one of the major contributors to them.

And don't look at the county emperor for help in this area either.  Chris Abele doesn't have a clue to what side he's on regarding the gun issue (or anything else for that matter).  And Abele's only solution to dealing with Clarke is to take it out on the deputies and endanger public safety even more.

We can be thankful for real leaders in the community like Supervisor Bowen.

We can also be thankful for the chance to get rid of Clarke once and for all by electing Chris Moews as sheriff.  That is one thing that is long, long overdue.